Ferengi History
A long time ago the Ferengi were a peaceful civilisation, of kindly generous people. In 10,000 years, when the Ferengi first got currency, however the Ferengi turned from this into the most money hungry species in the Galaxy. Although little is known about how this reform physically took place it should be noted that Grand Nagus Gint, the very first Grand Nagus, wrote the Rules of Acquisition around the same time the Ferengi first used currency, it seems the use of currency almost immediately corrupted the Ferengi people. At some point or another the Ferengi people met an advanced race of aliens and purchased warp drive from them, once again the exact circumstances are unknown, who did they purchase warp drive from? Why did the people that gave them warp drive contact the Ferengi the first place and other such questions are among the many that the Ferengi refuse to answer. It should also be noted that it would appear that the infamous Roswell landings appear, from description, to be Ferengi, however it is believed that some form of time travel was involved. Indeed it appears that Quark, and Nog, residents of Deep Space 9 as well as Grand Nagus Rom were the 'aliens' seen at Roswell, however a convincing case cannot be drawn up against the three and Rom has declared the case closed, while Quark denies all allegations. In the interests of diplomacy, the Federation has dropped the matter. Another mysterious note is that it appears that Starfleet's first ship, the SS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Johnathan Archer once encountered the Ferengi, investigation is under way and formal contact was not made. (Note: In the upcoming Enterprise episode 'Acquisition' the Ferengi will be making an appearance, however very little data about this ep has been released and as such I cannot record the actual events in that episode in this history) A third 'contact' was made with the Ferengi before actual First Contact in 2355. A Ferengi vessel appeared and fired twice on the USS Stargazer under the command of Captain Picard, the Stargazer's shields were disabled by the blasts and Picard employed the 'Picard Manoeuvre' to destroy the vessel. The Ferengi would later call this the 'Battle of Maxia' Actual First Contact with the Ferengi was in 2364. Before this time there had been rumours about the Ferengi for years including rumours that they were ferocious carnivores. The more accurate rumours described the Ferengi as capitalist traitors with technology around the same level as the Federation. In early 2364 the Ferengi stole a T-9 energy converter, the USS Enterprise-D pursued them in an attempt regain it. After a few problems with the 'dead' Tkon Empire the Ferengi and the Federation FINALLY set up a dialogue after all those 'contacts'. The peace however was fragile, the Ferengi felt the 'hew-mons' were preachy, arrogant and over-confident, the Federation saw the Ferengi as primitive, capitalist and a representation of all they had worked to get away from during their early history. Only a month later the Enterprise was greeted by the hulk of the Stargazer, Ferengi DaiMon Bok, wanted revenge for Picard's killing of his son during the Battle of Maxia. He falsified evidence to suggest that Picard had fired the first shots and that the Ferengi had only being defending themselves when the opposite was true. After this was exposed Bok was stripped on his title and command and sent to Rog Prison. Things remained quiet on the Ferengi front following this. The Ferengi slowly began to realise that peace between the Ferengi and the Federation was good for business. They also realised that humans trusting nature made them easy to trick, thus making them exploitable. As a result the general consensus among the Ferengi began to reflect the idea of peace with the Federation, despite the military and governmental viewpoint being slightly behind. In 2366 a stable wormhole was discovered known as the Barzan wormhole. Both Ferengi and Federation representatives attempted to bid for control of the wormhole and even when the Ferengi poisoned several members of the Federation team the two remained neck and neck, that is until it was discovered that the Barzan wormhole was not stable and that although one end remained fixed above Barzan, the other end jumped around, to places including the Gamma and Delta quadrants, two Ferengi were lost in the Delta Quadrant in this mission and were later discovered by the USS Voyager in 2372. Near the end of this year DaiMon Tog attended the Trade Agreements Conference on Betazed. While there Tog kidnapped Lwaxana Troi, another representative at the Conference, and her daughter Counsellor Deanna Troi of the USS Enterprise, as well as her commanding officer Commander William Riker due to his wish to... mate with Lwaxana (Note: Yes, even Ferengi history has it's ugly side!) while also maintaining a business partnership with her whereby she would use her telepathic abilities for financial gain. Picard managed to negotiate all three's release. In 2369 Grand Nagus Zek visited DS9 to discuss business opportunities in the Gamma Quadrant. There he appointed Quark, a DS9 Ferengi resident as his successor. Shortly afterwards Zek died but it was discovered Zek's death was faked in order to test how ready his son, Krax, was to become Grand Nagus. In 2370, the following year, Zek assigned Quark to business negotiations with the Dosi and other Gamma Quadrant races. After investigation Quark realised that this was all a ploy to attempt to contact a vast alliance of planets known as the Dominion, which was believed to be the dominant power in the Quadrant (this was before First Contact, and what the Dominion were like was revealed) and Quark finished his operation in the Gamma Quadrant. Zek once again visited DS9 in 2371. He announced the new Rules of Acquisition which preached kindness and generosity. He also set up the Ferengi Benevolent Association. It turned out that while inside the Bajoran Wormhole Zek had looked into the Orb of Change in the hope of talking to the prophets to learn the future and to get more profit. The prophets had found him dangerous and a threat and devolved him to the point of an early spiritual Ferengi. Fortunately Quark was able to reverse it when he pointed out to the Prophets that this act would bring more Ferengi to the wormhole, annoying the Prophets even more. The Prophets immediately returned Zek to his former state, and Quark promised no Ferengi would ever revisit the Prophets. In 2373 Quark visited Ferenginar in a depression over the recent revoking of his business license. There he discovered that his mother, Ishka, and Grand Nagus Zek were in love. Ferengi Liquidator Brunt came and told them that if he broke up their relationship he would return the favour by returning Quark's business license. Quark did so, but when he did the Ferengi economy suddenly plummeted, discovering that Ishka had acted as the brains behind the staff, Quark immediately got them back together. Ishka and Zek's relationship had an effect on all of Ferengi society. Ishka was a free-thinking woman, who had previously been responsible for Quark being arrested for earning profit, and refused to go naked in public. As a result she began to push for reforms in Ferengi society. This all happened while the Dominion War waged on. The Ferengi taking a typically neutral stance (if you ally with someone then their enemies will not buy your products) were sympathetic to the Federation's cause. After all to quote Quark: "The Jem'Hadar dont eat, dont drink and dont have sex, and to make matters worse the Founders dont eat, dont drink and dont have sex." as a result had the Dominion become rulers of the Alpha Quadrant there would of been a large loss of profit. The Ferengi government however kept this stance until the end of the war. "Peace is good for profit." as Quark also once said. The reforms continued and to the disgust of the Ferengi a new amendment was added to the Ferengi Bill of Rights which gave Females equal rights. The reform had plunged Ferengi society into chaos as the Traditionalists and Progressives battled over what was right. However Zek was deposed from his position and Brunt was made Acting Grand Nagus. On DS9 Zek and Ishka called the Ferengi Commerce Authority (the FCA) to the station in order to here Zek's arguments. However only one, Nilva turned up. However during an argument with Quark, Ishka had a heart attack, stopping her from being able to help in preparations. A big part of their plan was to show that, using Ishka, a female could be just like a man. Quark agreed to go under surgery and temporarily became a female called Lumba (Note: I hate you all for making me go through this!) and convinced Nilva to support the amendment. Nilva was powerful enough to do this and Zek was reinstated. In mid-2375 Zek disappeared. It was discovered by Quark and his brother Rom that Zek had gone to the Mirror Universe in the hope of selling a cloaking device to the Alliance in that universe. Zek was rescued and the Alliance didn't get there cloaking device. The Ferengi reforms continued, and at the end of 2375 there were many new reforms which traditionalists, such as Quark, objected to such as worker's rights and many feminist reforms. At the end of 2375 Zek retired from his position as Grand Nagus and granted the honour of being his successor to Rom who he felt would carry forward the reforms.